In their first game after being eliminated from the playoffs, the Colorado Avalanche lost 3-1 to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night. Colorado generated just 10 shots on goal in the embarrassing effort – tying for the mark for the least shots any team has put on net all season.
Jeff Carter led the way in the winning effort with two assists, including one on the game-winning goal.
The Avalanche (36-31-12) wrap up their three-game, California road trip with just one win. Goalie Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves in his first game action of the trip.
The Kings (39-25-14) jumped back into the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference with the victory.
Dwight King opened the scoring when he buried a juicy rebound off a Carter shot on a 2-on-1 break at 13:56 of the opening period.
Despite being outshot by a wide margin, the Avs evened the score just over a minute into the second stanza. Kings goalie Jonathan Quick couldn’t handle Gabriel Landeskog’s shot and Ryan O’Reilly poked the loose puck into the net. Landeskog has 26 points in his last 25 games.
Alex Martinez reestablished the Kings lead and scored the game-winner with when he sniped Varlamov top shelf on a Carter rebound.
Marion Gaborik extended L.A.’s lead to 3-1 with a beautiful wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle that went off the elbow of the net and in.
“Obviously, we’re all disappointed. I’m happy with the overall effort of our team. The power play was a big reason.
“I guess every rink has their own way to count the number shots,” Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy said. “To me, it’s more how many shots we gave to them. We were on a back-to-back game and they were waiting for us. They’re a desperate team. I thought we defended ourselves very well and that’s what I was looking at tonight more than scoring chances. I’m not making a big deal out of the number of shots.”
The Avalanche come back home to finish up the season with a three-game homestand starting on Tuesday when the Nashville Predators come to town.
Nathan is a staff writer for Mile High Sports. He can be reached on Twitter at @TheRealNatron.
